After Haas F1 Team finished dead last in the 2023 Formula 1 Championship, Team Principal Guenther Steiner has been fired, replaced by Ayao Komatsu with immediate effect, the team has announced.
Komatsu has been promoted from within, most recently serving as Director of Engineering after starting with the team in 2016 as Chief Race Engineer. The 47-year-old Japanese engineer has 20 years of experience in F1, previously working for British American Racing (BAR-Honda) and Renault prior to joining Haas.
“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” states Komatsu. “Having been with the team since its track debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.”
As for Steiner, the charismatic team boss departs after 10 years at the helm of Haas, following a tumultuous period in the American team’s history. While he was instrumental in the early success of the team, the last few years have not gone Haas’s way. Their best finishes in a race were a fourth and a fifth at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. Hopes had been high that with new rules coming in for 2022, and Haas not developing a 2021 car at all, the team could redeem itself, but things never improved. The car showed good one-lap pace in Qualifying, but come the Grand Prix, poor performance and odd strategy calls plagued the American F1 team.
It’s been reported that turbulence within the team led to Steiner’s dismissal, and some have suggested he made calls to pursue alternate development strategies to what the engineers wanted. Perhaps Komatsu at the helm might allow Haas engineers to develop a competitive car.
“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future,” commented Gene Haas, Team Owner at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. “Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”
While Steiner previously oversaw both the on- and off-track action, Komatsu will focus on the former. The business side of Haas F1 Team will be handled by a newly appointed European-based Chief Operating Officer to handle non-competition matters.
Haas further added, “We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team. I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximize our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.”
